Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/01/14
By: Lee Hsien-feng and Elizabeth Hsu

CNA file photo

Taipei, Jan. 14 (CNA) An investigation is underway to seek the truth behind the death of some 1,200 birds in an apparently organic rice paddy in Taitung County after powerful pesticides were identified as the culprit, local police said Monday.

The Taitung Animal Disease Control Center chief Li Huan-tang (黎煥棠) said Monday that tests of grain particles retrieved from the stomach of the dead birds last week found them to contain trace amounts of the pesticide carbofuran.

The center therefore determined the dead birds were killed by the chemical, one of the most toxic carbamate pesticides marketed in Taiwan that is used to kill insects during the period when rice and vegetable seedlings are being cultivated.

Taitung County Agriculture Department head Hsu Rui-kuei (許瑞貴) said after the findings were made public that the National Police Agency has launched an investigation to determine if the birds were illegally poisoned to death.    [FULL  STORY]